


Knife's Edge

by Yamx



Category: White Collar
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-07-13
Updated: 2011-07-13
Packaged: 2017-10-21 08:57:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,261
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/223387
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yamx/pseuds/Yamx
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This was not how El had expected her first meeting with Kate to go. Well, in fact, she hadn't expected it at all. After all, Kate was dead.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Knife's Edge

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lionessvalenti](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lionessvalenti/gifts).



> Written for [Awesome Ladies of White Collar Fic Fest](http://wc-women-fest.livejournal.com/904.html), in response to Lionessvalenti's prompt: _Elizabeth & Kate AU - Confrontation (and Kate has a pretty damn good excuse)._ Set during the time in season 2 when El is in San Francisco. I had to take some liberties with canon details to make this AU possible.
> 
>  **Spoilers:** up to _Forging Bonds_  
>  **Beta:** Canaan

Elizabeth strolled along under the arches of Jackson Square, looking at store windows. She was organizing a wedding, and her client was determined to make it "an event San Francisco will talk about for years to come." The budget was extravagant, and so were the expectations, so she was looking through galleries and antique stores, searching for memorable wedding favors.

She entered a large antique store, spanning the entire ground level of a red brick building. They seemed to specialize in furniture and musical instruments, but many small objects – silver spoons, jewelry and small statuettes – were artfully spread out on antique oak and mahogany surfaces.

She smiled as she imagined Peter's groan at seeing all these "frills" – though right now, he'd probably be glad to go anywhere with her just to spend some time together. She sighed. The series of events she had been hired to organize – bridal shower, bachelor and bachelorette party, rehearsal dinner, wedding, reception, and morning-after breakfast – was lucrative and great fun to work on, but god, she missed her husband, her dog, and her home.

She was looking at a mother-of-pearl pill-box that might be the perfect token for the bride's aging uncle when a movement to her left caught her eye. A slender hand slipped a garnet-studded knife into a Louis Vuitton purse.

El looked up, intending to alert the broad-shouldered security guard, when she caught sight of the woman's face, and froze.

It couldn't be.

And yet... She tried to remember the photos, files spread out all over the dinner table.

The woman looked at her, evidently becoming aware of her stare, and El was sure.

"Kate Moreau!"

The calculating look – _Has she seen me take it? Is she going to raise a fuss?_ – turned into the panicked stare of a deer in the headlights. Kate half-turned, angling herself towards the door.

"If you take one more step," El said in an urgent whisper, careful to smile in case an employee looked their way, "I'll call store security. They'll hold you till the police gets here. Which will give me plenty of time to call Peter and have him send some local FBI agents to take you in for questioning."

Kate's eyes went cold. "You're Burke's wife." El could see her calculating the implications.

El nodded. "So, shall we sit down on that couch near the coffee maker and have a little chat? Or..." She pulled out her cell phone, giving Kate her best business smile. No way was she going to let the woman who shattered Neal's heart walk out of here.

For a moment, Kate's eyes flicked back and forth between El, the exit, and the burly security guard standing near it. She nodded curtly and headed for the sofa.

El followed and sat by her – between Kate and the door, just in case. The sofa was soft and comfortable – not an antique, just a place for customers to rest and talk themselves into entirely unnecessary purchases.

A store clerk hurried over and offered them coffee, latte, cappuccino, tea, espresso–

El declined politely but curtly for them both.

Kate eyed El warily, clutching at her purse.

As soon as the clerk had gone, El turned to Kate. "How could you do this to Neal?" she demanded. "He loves you! Do you know what seeing you 'die' has done to him?"

Kate's face darkened into what El thought was either real worry, or an impressive facsimile. "Is he okay?"

She recalled countless Saturday afternoons where a call from the Marshals – "Caffrey's out of his radius, but looks like he's headed your way" – had been followed by a too-confident knock at their front door and Neal's blinding smile, saying he was sorry to disturb them on the weekend, but he'd had this really important thought on a case. The three of them would spend the afternoon sitting on the couch and discussing his idea. Peter never pointed out that it could easily have waited till Monday, Neal always had one or two beers too many without complaining about the brand, and El always insisted that he couldn't drive June's jag home in his state and should stay the night. A complicated dance, all orchestrated to spare Neal having to say "Please don't make me be alone."

El shook her head. "He walks and talks and smiles like he's okay, but we can tell it's fake. I'm not sure if he's trying to fool us or himself, but..." She sighed. "It's killing him, Kate. And he's not even allowing himself to grieve."

Kate crossed her arms tightly. "He always thinks he needs to make everything all right for the people around him. No matter what it costs him." She shrugged helplessly. "He has the biggest heart I've ever seen."

Outrage made El lean in closer, till mere inches separated her from Kate. "Then why did you _leave_ him? Again? And why like that?"

Kate's eyes flashed with anger. "I left to keep him alive. You can drop the self-righteous mother-bear act."

El frowned. "Alive?" She shook her head. "He's not in danger anymore. Fowler's out of the picture."

Kate laughed dryly. "Fowler was never the threat. The man behind all this is too powerful and too smart to let your husband sniff him out."

El hesitated. It could be a ruse, an attempt to make El let her go. But there was something in Kate's eyes – something of the fox at bay.

Neal always said Kate wasn't a good enough liar to make it in the life without partners. And seeing how she seemed to be reduced to shoplifting these days – shoplifting of very expensive items, but shoplifting nonetheless – it seemed he might have been right. "Who is it, then?"

Kate shook her head. "Someone Neal and I used to work for. That's as much as I'm telling you." She tipped her chin up. "The point is, Neal was playing him at the time. And our ex-boss knew that. But rather than calling Neal out or killing him, he decided to play a game of cat and mouse. Set me on Neal, told me to make him love me."

"You only pretended." White-hot rage shot through El. The woman Neal had risked everything for, repeatedly, the woman who'd almost cost him – and her husband – everything, hadn't even cared. Every bad feeling El'd ever had about Kate Moreau increased tenfold.

Until she looked into the woman's eyes and saw her fighting back tears. "At first, yes. And Ad– and our boss thought that was all it was. He intended to skip out on Neal, make him wake up to see his plans in ruins. I was supposed to follow the next day, to twist the knife even more."

El watched Kate's wringing hands, her hunched shoulders, and the dullness in her eyes. "But by then, you were really in love with him." She wanted to stay angry, but Kate's obvious misery made that hard.

Kate looked away and nodded – a brisk, reluctant bop of the head. El felt a twinge of sympathy soften the edges of her anger. Neal drew people in like that. Especially when he _wasn't_ trying to con them.

"The next few months were the poorest and the happiest of my life." She looked back at El. "But then I got word that _he_ was looking for us. Well – for me." She shook her head. "He'd trusted me, so I had certain... things of his. I'd been supposed to bring them to him when I skipped town."

"Valuable things?"

Kate shrugged. "To me, very. To a man like him, pocket change. But he never liked being shortchanged. Said it set a bad precedent."

El nodded. "You were worried he'd come after both of you."

Kate was playing with the strap of her purse. "I broke up with Neal with a flimsy excuse, made sure he left the country without me. Then I did my best to stay off everyone's radar."

"But Neal found you. And so did Peter." She couldn't quite keep the pride out of her voice. Her husband had achieved what even an unscrupulous crime boss could not.

Kate nods. "When your husband arrested Neal I was... relieved. Prison's not safe, not by a long shot, but anything was safer than being with me." She frowned and dug her knuckles into her thigh. "I should never have visited him. I made him a target."

El's throat went dry as the pieces fell into place. "So you broke up with him. Again."

Kate nodded. "But he was determined. When I heard he'd broken out of supermax for me, and later about the deal he struck with your husband, I knew the only way to keep him safe was to make him think I was dead."

"So – you set it all up?

Kate nodded grimly. "As I said, I had certain valuables to trade with."

El's stomach cramped. She couldn't hate Kate now, but this was insane. "When Neal saw you die, he–"

"He'll get over me." He voice was dull and clipped.

El put a hand on Kate's forearm and pretended not to notice her stiffen. "I'm not so sure."

Kate's voice turned bitter. "Well, at least he'll have the chance. Which is more than he'd have if he was dead."

There was no way to argue with that.

Kate pressed on. "Right now, Neal is safe. He's out of the game. Our ex-boss thinks he's suffering enough. I don't think he quite buys the story of my death, but he believes that Neal buys it. And all the valuables of his I had are back on the market. He knows that by now, so he knows Neal doesn’t have them."

"How can you be sure?" This man might be looking for Neal right now, and if he found him, Peter would not hesitate to stand between him and his target. No matter the cost. El bit her lip.

"I have my sources." Kate tossed back her hair. "If you tell Neal I'm alive, he'll stop at nothing to find me." She met El's eyes. "He has a real shot at something good with your husband right now."

El nodded. It was true. And it would break Peter's heart if Neal ran. Which he would if he found out about this. She didn't doubt Peter could catch him again, but that would mean sending him back to prison. And while he wouldn't hesitate to do it, Peter would hate himself for that.

And yet, there was no way she could keep this from them. It was too big. The whole last year had been about finding Kate – and now she had.

"If he runs, either your husband will catch him and he'll go to prison, or Neal will find me – and make no mistake, he's too determined and too smart for me to hide from him forever – and our ex-boss will kill us both." She sighed. "He'll probably kill me one day. But I'll give him a run for his money."

El took her hand – Kate flinched, but let her. "It doesn't have to be like that, Kate." She held up her cell. "Let me call my husband. He can protect you."

Kate laughed. "No, he can't. He'd be up against power you can't even imagine. Peter can send me to prison, or the witness protection program, or hide me under your bed, but he can't keep me out of that man's reach. Believe me, I've seen him do more impressive things than take one person right out from under the FBI's nose. My best bet is to stay off everyone's radar – because anyone's radar is potentially accessible to my ex-boss."

El was silent. She wanted to argue, wanted to tell Kate that Peter was different, but it was clear from the closed-off expression on the other woman's face that nothing she said would sway her.

"So, here's where you make a choice," Kate said, and the coolness of her tone was betrayed by a slight tremble in her voice. "I'm going to get up and walk out of this store now. You can call security, and the police, and the FBI. I'm sure Peter will fly in by tomorrow, and he'll have to bring Neal – knowing him, he'll tell your husband to take him or he'll run. There'll be a brief, tearful reunion, followed by lots of paperwork that'll put me back in the system and paint a huge target on my back. Very soon, I'll be dead, and so will Neal. And if your husband tries to protect him–" She left the rest unspoken, but El heard it all the louder.

El's thoughts were racing. She wished she could ask Peter's advice, but making that call would force his hand. And Neal would find out. Her husband wasn't very good at hiding things from those he cared about.

If she kept this to herself, Neal would continue grieving for a woman who wasn't dead. But if she told them, Neal might die, and so might the woman he was grieving for. El bit the inside of her cheek.

Kate got up, took her purse, nodded at El and turned, walking to the door with her shoulders back and her head held high. Confident, or faking it well.

El sat, frozen in indecision, when her phone rang. She looked at the display and breathed in sharply. It was Peter.

Swallowing, she hit "answer" and brought the phone to her ear. Kate was half-way to the door.

"Hi, hon," El said.

The End


End file.
